PONG!

Yes, our first game will likely be PONG! Widely considered to be the first, mass-market graphics computer game ever created. (Space War and others came first but Pong was the breakthrough game!) This is a great starting point because the code for the game is just a few hundred lines and easy to understand. Plus, the graphics are insanely simple and leave lots of room for improvements. This makes a great place for us to start and build from.

We'll discuss the original game's design, mechanics, and controls. Then we'll dive right into how we want to update it starting with making it something that 8 people can play together on 8 joysticks and what that would look like.

We can talk about a new visual theme for the game vs just black and white lines. We can then figure out what we want to do with the audio and how to make that cooler. Lastly, we'll talk about exciting new game features.

Since this will be the first game we tackle, I'll make sure and have some options available right from the start for visual, audio, and gameplay. Then I'll show them how to change things... all the things!

The real changes are going to come from the kids in the class but some examples of what we could do would be like the stuff below...

How can we move it into 3d in such a way that it doesn't break the original design but works well for our 2 screen system? Imagine the image below where each side views the screen from their end.

How do we make it multiplayer for 8 and what cool new mechanics could we build into it to make that more fun for team vs team play?

How about making it so the paddles could move around in 2d BUT they get shorter and shorter the closer they get to the center line? This adds the fun mechanic of making it harder two ways, smaller paddle AND less time to react, but also gives the benefit of cutting down their time to react.

How about creating different paddle types that do different things and let the players choose their paddle type at the start? One paddle could be extra wide but moves slower. Another could always make it bounce off faster than it hit it. How about a paddle that looks curved and hits at more extreme angles? How about a paddle that is invisible to the other team (2 screens, remember) but is smaller or slower to balance it out?

The original pong had knobs that rotated and allowed for more analog control. We will be making this for digital joysticks that have 8 directions but only on or off but we will also have buttons. How can we compensate for the lack of fine control? Maybe have the button make you move faster while pressed?

How about uses for the other buttons? If we build in 2 or 4 buttons per joystick, what could we use those for? Special attacks? A turbo mode or slow motion mode? Switching paddle types? Shaking the screen to annoy people?

If multiple people are playing per side, how do we distinguish them from each other? Colors? Images?

What if there are unequal numbers of players per team? How do we make it balanced? Larger paddle? More special attacks?

Again, those are just some examples that I'll throw at the kids to get them thinking up other new stuff. We'll have some of those things functional so we can see what they look like. Depending on the features we choose we might be able to try them out almost immediately as some things will be doable in a few minutes in class.

For some of the other design elements they come up with, we can try sending them home to be "homework" where the kids can try to implement them for the next class.

I will be recording all the class talks and uploading them to YouTube for the kids to view after class in case they need to see how I did something. For child privacy reasons, these videos will just be my screen and an audio recording. We will probably do some recordings of the kids actually playing the standup console (once we have built it!) but we'll be careful to only include kids whose parents have given the ok to use them in promotional stuff for the school.

My expectation is that we'll spend week 1 of the class, deciding on the name of the company, setting up computers and websites, writing bios and more startup stuff. I expect we'll spend weeks 2,3, and maybe 4 on Pong variations! Week 5,6,7 will likely be moving on to the sliding tile game. Then the rest of the semester can be spent working on the big project BUT as the saying goes, no plan survives first contact with the enemy, so we'll see what really happens!